Beth Moses (BSAAE, MSAAE) flew to suborbital space on Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity for the second time July 11.

With her suborbital flight on Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity on July 11, Sirisha Bandla (BSAAE '11) joined an exclusive club. She's the 17th AAE alumni in the Cradle.

Beth Moses and Sirisha Bandla will fly July 11, at the earliest, the company announced. It'll be Moses' second flight to space and Bandla's first, launching her into Purdue's "Cradle" as a commercial astronaut.

Yen (Yu) Matsutomi and Loral O'Hara worked alongside each other at Zucrow Labs during grad school in AAE, but a friendship budded beyond research.

“This is just an incredible honor,” Rhonda Walthall said. “I would have never dreamed that I would ever receive this award, this recognition from Purdue.”

“It is great honor to be recognized among peers that have accomplished great things in their careers after Purdue,” Stevan Slijepcevic said.

“I have always been proud to be a Boilermaker alumnus, and it is truly an honor to be recognized by my AAE faculty colleagues as having contributed something to our field and our profession,” David Schmidt said.

"It's an incredible honor," O'Hara said. "I feel very fortunate to be a part of the Purdue community, both then and now. So it's pretty humbling to get nominated for and receive this award."

"It never crossed my mind that I would one day get an OAE award," Yen Matsutomi said. "I remember sitting in the OAE banquet when I was a Purdue student, admiring in awe at the achievements that the awardees have accomplished. Being selected as an OAE means a great deal to me and is deeply humbling."

"For years I have seen the announcements of the selected honorees in the Purdue newsletters never anticipating that I would be so honored. I am so very grateful," Doug Joyce said.